Prior art vehicle structural frames must provide protection for various vehicle system components in the event of an impact to the vehicle, and are therefore designed and tested to conform to various impact standards and criteria. Typically, every new vehicle configuration requires extensive engineering and validation efforts to ensure that the structural frame of the new vehicle configuration will provide adequate protection to vehicle system components.
Furthermore, new systems being developed for use in automotive vehicles often include components that are more complex and fragile than more conventional vehicle system components. These new systems, such as hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen storage systems, and drive-by-wire systems, provide significant advantages over more conventional automotive systems, but may be more susceptible to damage in the event of a vehicle impact. Engineering protected spaces within a vehicle structural frame for such components may be significantly more resource-intensive, and therefore more expensive, than engineering prior art vehicle structural frames.